A local chapter of Moms for Liberty is breaking from the national organization after one of their co-founder’s husband was accused of rape.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler’s husband, Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler, is accused of raping a woman who they previously engaged in a consensual three-way sexual relationship with, according to the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
The allegation was enough to cause the local chapter of Moms for Liberty in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania to break from the national group.
“It’s hard to advocate for parental rights when the co-founder is caught up in the scandal,” chapter chair Clarissa Paige told The News-Item. “Our values are not aligning with the national organization.”
Paige will replace the local Moms for Liberty chapter with the Northumberland County Academic Alliance, which she said will continue to focus on parental rights in schools.
“The journey has always been the strength of our local community and we found all the support we need among us,” Paige told the outlet. “We are going to continue to champion parental rights with dignity and integrity.”
Moms for Liberty is a conservative parents rights group that was founded in 2021. They have since been labeled as an anti-government extremist group by civil rights watchdog The Southern Poverty Law Center.
In a statement at the time, a spokesperson for SPLC wrote that Moms for Liberty was the most prominent of 12 extremist “anti-student inclusion groups” mobilizing to “attack public education, ban books, and remove any curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination, and LGBTQ+ identities”.
